Defensive Legal Issues

In defensive training, we talk about concepts and principles of personal or family defense against a violent criminal. These may include awareness, avoidance, and collection and processing of information so that we properly identify an attacker and have an appropriate response. The “verbiage” may change from one instructor to the next or one curriculum to the next, but the core concepts and principles remain constant.

“Hell yes! I worked hard for my property. You try to take it away from me, you deserve to die, and I’m just the guy who’ll do it!” The decision to use deadly force to protect personal property involves the question of whether deadly force “may” be used, but equally important, whether it “should” be

Driving to the movies on December 26, 2014, I never in a million years envisioned needing to draw my defensive firearm. All the defensive firearm usage scenarios I had envisioned revolved around things like home invasion, carjacking, bank robbery, and spree shooting events. All my previous firearms training revolved around identifying.…

In Know the Law, Part I, I discussed the definition of deadly force and when you may be able to use it in self-defense. Now let’s look at the legal guidelines for using deadly force. Every state has guidelines for the use of deadly force. If you are a legally armed citizen, it is your

What are the legal aspects of using deadly force? Every state has guidelines for the use of deadly force. As a legally armed citizen, it is your responsibility to know those guidelines before you carry a gun for personal defense. Being legally armed is a tremendous responsibility. You carry a tool that can take human

A person needs to attend formal firearms training courses for at least one, if not two, very good reasons. The first reason is, of course, to learn how to use the firearm safely and competently for self-defense. This necessitates a critical look at your lifestyle and priorities, and examining where your skills are lacking. Do

At first I intended to write about one of the sexier aspects of self-defense as it pertains to the legal arena, perhaps something about the “21-foot” rule (and why it is not a rule at all), or maybe why shooting someone in the back isn’t necessarily murder (even though the pinheaded DA thinks it is).

The late, great Col. Jeff Cooper, founder of the famous firearms school Gunsite, first called the issue of dealing with the criminal justice system after a self-defense shooting “problem two.” Specifically, he opined that surviving the deadly force encounter was “problem one,” and everything that occurred afterward (the emotional, societal and legal issues) was “problem